The mage searched the grimoire Abomination Warfare. He searched the pages for a scout. The bees were alright fighters, but he wasn't doing very well with communicating with them. After flipping through the disorganized catalog of monsters he found a page about a creature called a pail lurker. The creature was a gangly corpse given life. The notes however mentioned pulling out an eyeball and replacing it with a bloodstone made from the mages blood. If he then created another bloodstone of his own blood, he could replace his eye with the blood stone and be able to see through all bloodstones made of his own blood.
Albie did not feel like ripping out his own eye. The thought of someone being willing to mutilate themselves like that was sickening. His imagination tormented him with an image of him sticking a knife into his skull to extract his own eyeball. A shiver ran down his spine. The phantom wounds ached. The feeling of his life bleeding out the wounds he shared with his wife. He didn't know if he would survive another injury.
Whoever this pail scourge constantly being referenced was disturbed if they were willing to do this to themselves.
Albie closed Abomination Warfare and checked the Book of Bloodstone It did not offer an alternative. He tried Sculpting life and was disappointed to not see any great alternatives. Just some notes in the back on how a mage might feel a connection to any bloodstone they make of their own blood. This supported that he could replace his eye with a bloodstone but the idea of giving up an eye.
Albie took a syringe in his hand. He sat on the cold wood flor of the room and took a deep breath. He held tested his arm for a pulse and prepared the needle. He lined it up and took another deep breath. May flew over to him and landed on his shoulder. The hungry bee looked at what he was doing and asked about food. Albie thought back a desire for a living squirming rat. May took flight and left the lab through the door. One more time the young man took a deep breath in and slowly exhaled out. He pierced flesh with the needle. After the slight pinch of the needle he began extracting blood. He heard his eardrums play the sound of his heart thumping in his chest as the syringe began to fill with the red liquid. The cylinder filled and he pulled the needle out. A steady stream of blood trickled out his arm. With one of the chalky blood stones he heals the wound before too much blood escapes.
Bees sensing his unease flood the room. The thoughts of a hundred bees trying to defend the nest rush into his mind. The young mages head aches. He gets his heart rate under control and as he calms down the buzz of bee emotions looking to fight whatever is hurting him lessens in his mind. The bees big and small leave the lab and resume work.
On shaky feet he manages to stand up to the counter. He grabbed the bowl he was using to make the blood stones and takes them down to the floor. The mage empties the syringe into the bowl and begins the prosses of creating a blood stone. This moonstone made of fresh mage blood is a crystal the size of his finger little finger. A beautiful red stone with great transparency. The amount of blood it would take to make a crystal the size of his eye would need five times the blood. He did not feel like extracting more blood, so he looked back to the dead mage on the table. His build was good. Who ever he was, he died fighting lord Brand. The vengeful moon mage would see to it he would fight again.